The Day Harrison Ford Went Full Han Solo on the Set of Air Force One

In the pantheon of ’90s action cinema, few images are as enduring as Harrison Ford, jaw clenched, delivering the line: “Get off my plane!” in Air Force One (1997). But behind the camera, the man playing America’s most heroic fictional president was far more Han Solo than Commander-in-Chief—especially when it came to the film’s on-set rules.

During the mid-to-late ’90s, Ford had carved out a niche as Hollywood’s go-to reluctant hero. Whether as Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, or fugitives and wrongly accused men in thrillers like The Fugitive, he was perpetually under fire—both literally and figuratively. Yet, despite the tension in his characters’ lives, Ford himself never lost his signature dry wit. It’s the same irreverent streak that helped him turn George Lucas’s Star Wars dialogue into sly comedy—and, apparently, helped him turn a high-stakes film set into his own personal cantina.

Co-star Gary Oldman recounted the now-legendary moment in an interview. Like most enclosed set environments, the Air Force One production had strict rules for the mock-up presidential jet: “No drinking, no smoking, no eating.” Straightforward enough. But one day, Oldman looked up to see Ford in the doorway beneath that very sign… flagrantly violating all three at once.

“There was one day when I looked around, and Harrison was standing in the doorway beneath the sign that said ‘no smoking, no drinking, no eating,’ and he was drinking a coffee, eating a burrito, while smoking a cigar,” Oldman said. “And he was doing all three.”

The image is almost too perfect—Ford, as calm as if he were leaning against the Millennium Falcon, flouting every rule in the book without missing a beat. It’s the kind of scene that cements his status not only as an action icon, but as a man who, when faced with bureaucracy, chooses the burrito.

Of course, the combination of cigar smoke, coffee, and burrito fillings raises questions of taste (and possibly gastrointestinal fortitude). Was it a moment of pure rebel swagger, or a culinary crime scene? Either way, it’s hard not to imagine this anecdote as a deleted scene—President James Marshall sneaking in a quick puff and a bite mid-crisis, the terrorists outside none the wiser.

In the end, the rule-breaking didn’t derail the production, though Air Force One’s real-life box office trajectory was far more successful than its fictional presidential flight. The film became one of Ford’s most iconic roles, but for those who were there, the real unforgettable moment may always be the day the “President” stood under the “No Smoking, No Drinking, No Eating” sign… and did all three anyway.

Sometimes, the most presidential thing Harrison Ford can do is remind everyone that rules—especially on a fake airplane—are more like guidelines.